Gun Violence Midterm Project

For my project I will be revolving it around gun violence in America. When I was in 8^th grade I was given the opportunity to receive a class ring. This ring was a big deal to everyone in the class and we were even having a ‘ring ceremony’ in the afternoon of our school day, where our families came out and we had a little service, sang some songs, and then had some cake. That day was supposed to be a fun day, and a joyful occasion. . .but that day was also December 14^th.  Approximately 9:30am on Friday, December 14th, 20 year old Adam Lanza shoots his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School. He first kills Dawn Hochsprung, the principal, school psychologist, March Sherlach, and injures Natalie Hammong, the vice principal, while I was bringing lights down to the gymnasium. Adam Lanza then enters a classroom, kills 14 children, the teacher Lauren Rousseau and the teacher’s aide. Adam Lanza enters one last classroom and kills 6 children, the teacher Victoria Soto, and finally himself, and I was rearranging chairs. All within eleven minutes, their lives were taken away from them. These children, 6-7 years old, now never get to grow up and prepare for their ring ceremony. . . they never get graduate school or fall in love, or learn how to drive a car. . . because Adam Lanza, a documented mentally ill person, had access to a semiautomatic rifle and two handguns.

            When I was a sophomore in high school sitting in math class I received a text from my mother telling me to call her. I excused myself from the room and waited for her to pick up. Over the phone she explained to me that a girl that I was once best friend’s with when we were about 5, sister had shot herself. I was not that close with her or the family anymore due to life drifting us apart from one another, however, every now and then we’d bump into each other and I’d ask how everyone is doing. Her sister was depressed for a long time after a certain incident happened, she ignored it and told everyone else too as well. They also ignored the pistol her father kept in the safe, before she had touched it, it was left still for months, due to the ultimate fact of not having any use for it.  

Now in college, I wake up for class and do what any normal person does now a days and check their social media feeds. All I see is red. On October 1^st, 2017, Stephen Paddock shot straight into a crowd of 22,000 people at a concert in Las Vegas. 58 people murdered and over 500 people were injured, 15 minutes of nothing but gun shots. . .

If I had to say anything about these events, it would be that they have seriously had the most impact on my life. After the Las Vegas shooting I was reading statistics left and right. Below are the ones that are most significant to me:

“On an average day, 96 Americas are killed with guns”

“62% of firearm deaths in the US are suicides”

“Seven children and teens are killed with guns in the US on an average day”

“In an average month 50 women are shot to death by intimate partners in the united states”

“America’s gun homicide rate is more than 25 times the average of other high-income countries”

I’m 18 years old, going to college in hopes of becoming a federal agent. I want to have the chance to make a difference in people’s lives. I may not be able to change the world (however never say never) but I know this challenging, exciting job will be filled with rewarding moments. But with being an agent it also means carrying a fire arm. I will and do carry these events that had happened during my life time along with me in the back of my mind. Every time there is something that happens with a gun that shouldn’t had happened, it helps me know that I have the correct conscious to do a job that demanding, because I am reminded and able to see why it is wrong and what should have been done to stop it.

Being in a position where I am not yet able to do much on the topic, other than protesting, and being aware with what is going on, I wanted to dedicate something to all of those who have lost their lives to a gun. I am currently in the process of creating an Urn.  A urn is a usually a tall vase, that is used for storing the ashes of a cremated person. This urn will have elements all over related to gun violence in America. However, instead of holding ashes I will use it to display 18 roses for the most recent who have lost their lives to a gun, but I will not classify them as that because they are so much more. The 18 roses will represent Alyssa, Scott, Martin, Nicholas, Aaron, Jaime, Chris, Luke, Cara, Gina, Joaquin, Alaina, Meadow, Helena, Alex, Carmen, Peter, and lastly my old friend’s sister. To your beautiful souls.

Once finish I will hope to display it where the world can see. . .social media. Please stay tuned and help me spread awareness.

So to those who lost their lives in a mass shooting, suicided, domestic violence, war, etc. this is for you..

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/15/us/florida-shooting-victims-school/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/02/us/las-vegas-shooting-what-we-know/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/connecticut-shootings-fast-facts/index.html

https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX4qUsgHa4Y
https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jimmy-davis-the-city-of-bayonne-movement?recruiter=507474584&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition

The Bike Hub/ project proposal

  The project idea I want to pursue is about a specific change happening right now in Jersey City. I have moved a couple times as a young child however, every weekend my parents would drive us an hour and a half away into Jersey City to attend church and visit my grandparents house. From breaking my arm at Pershing Field Park, to spending summers with my friends and family from the neighborhood, and even getting stuck in blizzards. What I had known and experienced as a young child seems to be drastically changing. For the past year and a half I have been back in Jersey City, but exploring it in a different way that allows for more exploration and analysis. I currently work at The Bike Hub on Monticello ave and study art at NJCU.

Cycling around the city along with biking just about anywhere enabled me to shortly discover facets of the city I had not known before. For my project, I would like to bring the new biking culture associated with The Bike Hub, local cyclists, as well as younger kids and teenagers in the neighborhood through a documentary style video including interviews, stills, POV videos, along with filming of different events such as free workshops teaching basic bike maintenance and mechanics and group rides. Rather than directly discussing gentrification throughout the city, I think it would be best to let it subtly subside throughout the video.

Although I have worked with video editing softwares and pursue photography on the side. Documentary/film is not usually my style of work, I plan to digitally manipulate the film through after effects with additional subject matter. Throughout the course of the film, I will be including hand drawn elements along with double exposure shots for more interesting visuals. Firstly, I would like to capture some of the personalities of the neighborhood teens and kids with fixies and bmx’s introducing themselves along with questions about what type of bike they have and what kind of riding they enjoy.

 Just like people take pride in their cars, a bike is something special for some kids, it is almost their first item that encourages adventure and freedom. Usually a lot of kids, teens, and cyclists take pride in ownership of the kind of bike they have. Through the spring and the summer when business starts to pick up more, all of the groups of kids frolick to the bike shop for maintenance and repair.  I want to film scenes like this that show a sense of community and positivity between different types of cyclist. Another scene I would like to implement is a recording of peoples reaction to a Mountain Bike we have in front of the window. It’s covered with dirt and grime, and I thought that would particularly be a scene to show how exciting The Bike Hub is along with biking in general. I would then include interviews from the owner discussing the goals of the shop and what contributions that has been made to the community. Such as donating children’s bicycles, opening a used bike lot and even the smaller things that go a long way. Like free air outside or even small fixes for local kids with their bikes.

I want to especially make it clear that there is an option for EVERYONE who walks into The Bike Hub, not just upper class citizens who can afford high-end and expensive bikes. Another goal of mine is to reach out to other organizations such as Bike JC for an interview of what the organization's goals and strategies to making the city more bike friendly are. One thing I have noticed are certain location of bike lanes or bikeways, bike lanes are usually more prioritized by the city for downtown residents. There are lanes in other parts of town such as Bergen-Lafayette and parts of greenville, but they are inconsiderable as most of them only travel for 5 blocks or so. Most of these bike lanes are not even incorporated into any of the main streets and do not connect to each other. Since 2009, Bike JC has been advocating for bike lanes throughout the entire city as well as other advancements for cycling through infrastructure. However, the city seems to prioritize certain locations than others, such as Grove St. and Columbus Dr. which are located in higher income neighborhoods. Although all of the city needs to implement a safer and organized bicycle infrastructure, it is evident through lanes and parking stations that upper middle class neighborhoods see more change first.

As an artist I have come to terms recently that an audience is a crucial factor to a piece of work. To gain success, I can no longer hide away in the drawers and corners of my bedroom, which is where most of my work ends up. I hope this project will be a milestone as it will be the first where I have to interact with others in order to create a significant and cohesive piece. I will be posting the final video on youtube and The Bike Hub website.


Below are some photos of costumers and the shop itself.

"Mr. Keith donated this bike, We tuned it up and found a young lady who could use it. Thank you, from The Bike Hub Children's Project!"

"A special thanks to Mordi's Schnitzel Truck in Jersey City for donating the money for three new kid's bikes with helmets and training wheels for kids who otherwise might not have had a chance to get some bikes this year." Mordi's Schnitzel truck created a Bike Hub Sandwich, where all the proceeds from that sandwich would go towards bikes for donation

Fixie, Trackbike, Fix

These are some of my sources that relate to my topic, I did not neccesarily use these in my writing. Some of the photos are also taken by myself, however I took them from the Bike Hub instagram page.

 http://www.bikejc.org/projects

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-walljasper/do-bike-lanes-promote-gen_b_4178505.html

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2016/08/new_shop_in_jersey_city_set_to_donate_dozens_of_bi.html 

Black Masculinity: A Personal Narrative

I propose a zine that describes the effects of toxic black masculinity on the community. A zine is most commonly a small self-circulated piece of original work exploring a certain topic or topics. I wanted to do more research on how toxic masculinity has shaped men to think and behave. I wanted to include my own personal narrative and even (possibly) include some other personal experiences from maybe two or three people. I chose a zine because I always wanted to publish one and I wanted to start up my own publication company, so this fits perfectly with both the class and my professional aspirations.

I thought making a zine was a good way to spread information. Zines can also be as creative as you want them to be so I am looking forward to creating a unique work of art. I also thought it would be cool to leave them lying around campus versus shoving them in peoples’ faces because often people will read something they see lying around in a lobby or waiting room. So, I wanted to leave them maybe lying around the caf on dining tables, leave some in some advisement waiting areas, and in some department waiting areas. I want it to market itself.

  

For the cover of the magazine I wanted to implement the ‘collage method’.  Collaging is a projective technique by which participants select images that represent how they feel about a particular topic. The participants then explain to the moderator the reason they chose each image. The collage becomes an instrument through which participants can express needs and feelings that they might not otherwise have been able to articulate. The collage method, in relation, to my cover allows for readers to see the different representations of masculinities.

 I decided to explore this topic because it has been on my mind since I first got involved in the realm of behavior, behavior patterns, masculinity, etc. but more importantly Black Twitter. I realized that the same behaviors lied in some many black men and that it really affected those around them. I also wanted to relay my own personal experience which may or may not be the same as others. I know that my background has shaped my way of thinking and I think that more importantly I want to, instead of maybe just listing solutions that seem completely farfetched, maybe educate and make people think about their actions in a different way. By having them look at their behaviors through someone else’s eyes. Recently open forums have been popping up everywhere discussing these situations but personally I feel like they give us an empty glimpse into the future with not-so-real expectations to people to change overnight.

          

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/02/collaging-getting-answers-questions-you-dont-know-ask/

http://frankolsonproject.org/collage-method/

https://www.theroot.com/nipsey-hussle-homophobia-and-toxic-black-masculinity-1821954848

http://lwlies.com/articles/black-masculinity-boyz-n-the-hood-moonlight/

http://afropunk.com/2016/10/uk-black-boys-dont-cry-project-reimagines-black-masculinity-through-spoken-word-film-and-photography/

http://www.artsobserver.com/2012/01/19/kehinde-wileys-regal-portraits-explore-black-masculinity/


http://www.thefader.com/2016/06/14/carefree-black-men

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